Jindal to Obama: No climate change talk for Katrina visit

BATON ROUGE - Gov. Bobby Jindal is urging President Barack Obama to skip talking about climate change when he visits New Orleans on Thursday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The Louisiana governor, a Republican presidential candidate, sent a letter to the president Wednesday calling on Obama to rethink plans to bring up global warming.

In the letter, Jindal says Obama should "respect this important time of remembrance by not inserting the divisive political agenda of liberal environmental activism."

The governor said Louisiana has devised a bipartisan coastal master plan aimed at lessening the damage of future storms and that a "lecture on climate change" wouldn't improve that hurricane protection work.

Obama's visit is expected to focus largely on the region's rebirth since the devastating storm struck Aug. 29, 2005.